Voice search how consumers interact with technology. As eCommerce brands strive to connect with their audience more naturally, voice search marketing becomes an essential strategy for driving conversions, especially on mobile devices.
What is Voice Search?
Voice search is the act of searching as you speak rather than typing.
This concept transforms how consumers find information, bringing in voice search marketing. It means businesses must now adapt to new search behaviors and optimize their content for spoken searches. We’ll discuss this further below.
Diving into our topic, take these highlights:
- Voice search has had a huge impact on digital communication for a long time, and adaptation is a must.
- Don’t worry that voice search optimization will overlap with your SEO strategy because they go hand-in-hand.
Let’s get the ball rolling!
What is Voice Search Marketing?
Voice search marketing is optimizing data and content for voice-based queries so that they can appear on voice-search results. With the rise of voice-activated devices like Alexa or Siri and voice search features, local businesses can expect to gain a massive traffic source. Ultimately, more traffic likely means higher conversion rates and revenues. That’s why all businesses and marketers must be ready to adapt and adopt.
Speaking of adoption and adaption, brands did this in 2011 when Siri was released. Then something called voice search appeared, providing quick answers and a hand-free experience. Since that point, voice assistants have been everywhere with the capability to alter search and consumer’ behaviors. Fast forward to today, voice search is still thriving, proven by:
- Digital voice assistants are estimated to hit 8.4 billion in 2024.
- On average, digital voice assistants answer 93.7% of search queries accurately.
- 40% of adults use voice search daily.
Voice search has indeed come a long way from where it began. Yet, this growth brings up new challenges referred to as complex users’ search behavior, efforts to tackle natural language processing, and many more.
Beyond the initial concept of voice search in digital marketing, businesses must be ready to approach conversational marketing.
How Have Businesses Adopted Voice Search Marketing?
Famous brands took an extra mile and stepped right into the future of voice search - conversational marketing. This means they transition from a more basic form of voice-based interaction to a more sophisticated one. It comes down to the term interaction and functionality, as witnessed in the following examples.
Domino’s Pizza
Image source: Shorty Awards
Domino's Pizza has been at the forefront of integrating voice search into its marketing strategy and they succeeded, effectively turning it into conversational marketing. The brand spotted that customers would be more satisfied with a convenient ordering experience and they must be able to order at the biggest ease.
Given this motivation, Domino’s Pizza started with voice ordering via Siri in 2014, then expanded to Google Assistant in 2015. In 2016, the team introduced chatbots on Facebook Messenger for instant engagement and support.
Continuing this journey in the late 2010s, they launched the "Zero Click" ordering feature and finally refined its voice search marketing practice with enhanced natural language processing.
What is “natural language processing”? Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a technology that helps computers understand and respond to human language. It powers tools like chatbots, translators, and voice assistants, allowing devices to interpret and interact with language naturally, similar to how people communicate.
Sephora
Image source: The Verge
Sephora launched its virtual assistant back in 2016 to help customers find products and try on virtual makeup using voice commands. The ultimate goal is to enhance convenience through a hands-free approach, particularly for multitasking users who want a more natural shopping experience. Sephora achieved the exact goal with their virtual assistant.
By adopting voice search technology with augmented reality into their strategy, Sephora delivered a highly immersive and interactive shopping experience that resonates with its target audience.
PayPal
PayPal has transformed its approach to customer interaction through a voice search marketing strategy that enhances user convenience and prioritizes security. Since November 2016, the partnership with Siri enables users to perform peer-to-peer transactions simply by speaking commands, such as “Hey Siri, send $50 to John.”
With availability in 30 countries and support for multiple languages, PayPal appeals to a diverse user base. They also address security concerns by incorporating features like PIN requirements and Touch ID, fostering a secure and user-friendly environment for transactions.
How Does Voice Search Impact Your Digital Marketing
Yes, voice search has a huge impact on your digital marketing efforts, from your current SEO strategy to delivered content materials on different channels. Here’s how.
SEO Scenario Looks Different
Image source: Ahrefs
Voice search developments transform the SEO landscape, pushing businesses to rethink their approach. Based on our research and observations, here are our findings:
- The top 5 ranking isn’t enough anymore. According to Forbes, 70% of voice search results are excerpted from Featured Snippets and People Also Asked. Similarly, Backlink.io stated that you may get a higher chance of ranking in voice search if your page ever appears in position Zero.
- Local SEO is taking over as voice search arises. Up to 22% of voice queries are about local information, including familiar phrases like “restaurants near me” or “best boutiques in towns”.
Writing Pieces May Need a Double-check
As mentioned, voice search marketing makes you change the way you deliver content if you ever want to navigate through it.
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Writing search queries is different from verbal ones. The former may refer to shorter terms, but the later is about longer ones because voice search is a hands-free experience. Instead of searching for “weather today”, users may start with “what’s the weather today?”. Such changes surely push brands to generate their content differently.
- Voice search results prefer concise and coherent answers. Google rates voice search answers and speech quality based on 3 criteria: length, formula, and elocution (the act of speaking clearly and expressively).
Voice Search Embraces Mobile-first Experience
Voice search marketing prioritizes mobile experience. According to reports, the portion of voice assistants on mobiles dominates that of any other.
Image source: eMarketer
To keep up, marketers must optimize for mobile voice search, focusing on local and conversational content. This means businesses must provide clear and relevant answers, helping them stay ahead. It's not adopting a trend anymore. Voice search optimization for mobile is now a norm.
Pro tips: If you are running an online store, we highly recommend you give mobile-friendly themes like Zest a shot. From lightning-fast speed and SEO-friendly default features to absolute responsiveness and peaking flexibility, Zest is your go-to theme to conquer the M-Commerce landscape.
How to Do Voice Search Optimization for Marketing?
Hey Siri, what is voice search optimization?
Voice search optimization means making changes to your website content and SEO strategy so that your business can be easily found through voice searches. This approach focuses on how people use voice assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant to search for information.
What does voice search mean for SEO? It means you’ll have some extra work to handle, but it won't conflict with your current strategy.
Does voice search optimization play a significant role in your marketing efforts? Yes, it surely does.
Since voice search is now a part of reality, you'd better take on the optimization process effectively. It leads us to the following sections, which cover some helpful practices that you can apply to enhance your voice search marketing strategy. Keep scrolling!
Optimize Your Content for Verbal Search
Remember the part where we mentioned voice-search queries are brief, straightforward, and easy to understand? That’s exactly what your content should look like if you want to rank for voice search on any search engine.
Let’s take an example - Google, our most popular search engine. Google will take your answer as a good one if it’s straight to the point, informative, relevant, short, and easy to understand.
Image source: Evaluation of Search Speech - Guidelines
Here are more examples of good and not-so-good content for verbal search:
How do I change a flat tire?
Good answer: To change a flat tire, start by pulling over to a safe spot. Use a jack to lift the car off the ground. Remove the lug nuts with a wrench, remove the flat tire, and replace it with the spare. Tighten the lug nuts, lower the car, and you're good to go.
Not-so-good answer: If you find yourself needing to replace a tire, you will first need to ensure that your vehicle is in a safe location. Afterward, utilize the appropriate tools, such as a jack and wrench, to begin the process of removing the old tire and installing the new one.
Regarding content optimization for voice search, here’s what you need to do next:
- Review your content: This includes identifying your content goals and gathering all delivered materials. Next, you’ll decide whether they will be kept, edited, or deleted.
- Edit or remove any content that is hard to read or contains irrelevant details: Focus on 3 terms - easy, quick, and on-the-go. For instance, you may want to replace this kind of content - “In response to the growing pervasiveness of technological innovation within modern industries”. Rewrite it into this: “As technology grows in modern industries”.
- Make it more conversational: Instead of words you’d never use in a conversation, such as utilize (use) or accorded (given), go for simple words. Also, you can tell stories through your content to achieve a conversational tone. Optimizing questions “what", “how", or “when" will be helpful if you want to achieve a conversational tone throughout your content pieces too.
Pro tips: According to Backlink.io, the understanding level of 9th grade is the best for your content and voice search SEO.
Update your Keyword Strategy
Tell us, which is the better term for voice search - plant tomatoes or when to plant tomatoes? The correct answer is, the second one!
The first one is short and more likely to have a higher traffic potential or search volume. But that’s the very tip of the iceberg. It barely gives you a user’s intent and can be extremely hard to get a high ranking, unlike the other term. The user's intent is a key player in voice search SEO or SEO overall.
Back to what we talked about, queries - they are short, direct, and simple. Queries tend to start with questions, and most of all, they give evident search intent. Based on such grounds, we highly recommend that you review your current keyword strategy and alter it if necessary. Instead of short and vague key terms, consider using more specific keywords. These may not have the dream search volume, but they can draw more traffic to your site than ever before.
Pro tips: Use keywords that start with who, what, when, how, or why. Local key terms are also great to kick off.
Long-form Content Can Rank Better
Is it true that long-form content will rank higher for search results, including voice searches? We won’t say it goes for every case. But there is one thing about long-form content as you navigate it in your SEO voice search strategy - It can generate more answers for one main query and the sub-queries. That may result in your content adapting to more users’ needs, and it simply increases ranking later on.
Take this note seriously:
- Many sources recommend that you keep your content around 1,500 to 1,800 words.
- Both your blog post’s length and the content quality are crucial. The length is to cover all necessary information, but the value that your content brings stays above all.
Focus on Your Page Loading Speed
Image source: Reparo.dev
Page loading speed is among the key factors for voice search optimization in digital marketing since it relates to user experience and SEO. Regarding site speed and performance, use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights for measurements. Focus on core web vitals like LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), FID (First Input Delay), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift).
For our team, a good page speed takes about 3 seconds to load. Yet, you can aim for an LCP under 2.5 seconds, FID under 100 milliseconds, and a CLS below 0.1. To achieve this, optimize images, reduce HTTP requests, and enable browser caching.
📚 People are also checking this out: Shopify Page Speed Optimization Hacks
Work on Backlinks
You should note that Google needs to be extremely confident that its voice search results are precise. Does this have anything to do with your backlink profile? Absolutely.
Google needs to ensure that it gives users your site content for any voice search query, so your site is well-trusted and expert. It means you’d better have a high Domain Rating (DR). Speaking of which, Ahrefs suggests that a DR of 76 would be better than a DR of 20 or 21.
In case you want to raise your DR, work on these factors:
- The quantity of referring domains that link to your site
- The quality of referring domains linking to your site (Do they have a high DR?)
Ensure Mobile Responsiveness
The last practice to enhance your voice search marketing efforts is to work on your web mobile responsiveness. Like several practices, this has to do with your target of appearing in voice search results and the overall SEO performance.
Cutting the long short, if you are reaching for better mobile responsiveness, try these ways:
- Compress your images (You may use tools like tinypng)
- Avoid placing too many pop-ups
- Choose readable fonts with the right sizes (we recommend your text should be at least 14 pixels for readability)
- Limit the actions users can navigate through your site on mobile devices
- Test your site regularly using tools like Google Lighthouse or Testsigma
- Use smart page builders like Foxify to support mobile-friendly designs throughout your site.
More about Voice Search Optimization
Does Schema Markup work for voice search SEO?
Understanding Schema Markup: This is a code added to a website so search engines like Google or Bing can understand delivered content (it can be taken as structured data). Overall, it helps with SEO performance, but it doesn’t work for voice search results.
Can you raise your chances of appearing in voice search results with highly socially shared content?
There could be chances. Backlink.io did a survey out of 10,000 voice search results and showed that such results likely had high social media sharings. Hence, highly shared content may help, but you just can’t be gaming the algorithms because Google puts user-first content above all. You may learn more here.
Ready to Conquer the Game of Voice Search Marketing?
We hope you’re ready to take on this digital transformation. As voice search continues to shape how consumers seek information, businesses, including yours, must prioritize voice search marketing to remain competitive.
By optimizing content for spoken queries and enhancing user experience, brands can engage their audience more effectively. This evolution meets the demands of modern users and positions companies for success in a rapidly changing digital landscape.
