How Brands Can Benefit 

• Increase a Brand’s Voice Search Result Appearances: When you optimize for voice search, virtual assistants will share your content more often, increasing brand awareness, especially at the local level. 
• Build Trust with Target Audiences: Voice search allows you to provide helpful, valuable information that positions your brand as trustworthy and an authority in your market. 
• Improve Overall User Experience: While you’re optimizing for voice SEO, you’ll be simultaneously improving the technical SEO elements of your site, which leads to an overall better user experience for your customers. 

5 Tactics to Improve Voice SEO 

1. Follow SEO Best Practices  

Most people think that because voice search users may not be able to physically see your site, it doesn’t matter how it runs or what kind of customer experience it offers—but that isn’t true. Voice search devices pull answers from the top of the search results, so if your site isn’t optimized for traditional SEO, you’re less likely to appear for voice searches.

Some of these best practices are: 

• Integrating Keywords on Your Page: If you want to appear in relevant search results, you need to choose relevant keywords for your site. 
• Optimizing for Mobile: Many voice assistants are on mobile devices and apps. You want to make sure your site has a responsive design that allows it to adapt and make browsing easier. 
• Speeding Up Your Site: The average person doesn’t want to wait for an answer. Ensure your site loads quickly so you don’t leave people hanging. 

2. Research Keywords for Voice SEO 

People speak differently than the way they type, so it’s important to consider that when planning your optimization strategy. Someone wondering how to cook fried chicken might type “how to make fried chicken” in a search bar but would say “how do I make fried chicken” when using a virtual assistant.

When doing the keyword research, it’s good to focus on: 

• Long-Tail Keywords: These keywords are more specific and usually have a lower search volume.
• Question Keywords: These are the keywords that always start with question words like “how,” “why,” “what,” “when,” and “where.” 
• Conversational Keywords: These keywords mimic natural conversation and typically reflect how people speak when they use voice search. 

3. Understand Your Target Audience 

Getting to know your target audience, their demographic breakdown, and what they’re searching for can help you reach them through voice SEO.

Local search queries can be grouped into three broad categories: 

• Discovery Queries: Users are looking for a type of business (i.e., “Find a coffee shop near MetLife Stadium”)
• Direct Queries: Users want to get specific information or take a specific action related to a business (i.e., “Call AGAIN Interactive”)
• Knowledge Queries: Users are looking for the answer to a question (i.e., “How many actors played James Bond before Daniel Craig?”)

4. Build an Awesome FAQ Page 

Having a great FAQ page not only helps with traditional SEO but voice SEO as well. It should be filled with content that fulfills the users’ needs and answers their questions.

The best ways to accomplish this are: 

• Using Your Keyword Research: This is one of the places where keyword research pays off. You should create a list of questions based on your keywords and make sure they all have answers. 
• Keep It Short and Sweet: Make sure your answers are detailed but not too long. Most consumers are looking for quick answers to their questions when completing a search. 
• Make It Easy to Use: You want your FAQ page to be easy to find, quick to load, and that it functions smoothly for your users. 

5. Practice Local SEO 

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

By optimizing for local search, you get to help the following types of searches find your business:

• Optimize Your Google Business Profile: You want to make sure your listing is as complete and specific as possible by including reviews and relevant keywords in your business description. The more info Google has, the more likely it is to include your business in local search results. 
• Use Other Directory Listings: Completing profiles on other platforms like Yellow Pages and Yelp can help drive more local traffic to your business. 
• Target Local Keywords: By targeting local keywords, like the words or phrases people use to find businesses, you can improve the odds of your brand appearing in voice search queries. 

Learn, Earn, and Grow with the Power of Voice Search 

Optimizing your site to include voice SEO, as well as traditional SEO, doesn’t have to be complicated when you’re working with the right partner, like AGAIN Interactive. Get in touch to find out how we can help optimize your site and increase brand awareness at info@againinteractive.com.