Voice search has been growing in popularity, now in 2024 there are more than 1 billion voice searches take place every month*. Voice search is defined “as technology that allows users to perform searches using voice commands instead of typing”. With voice assistants like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant built into our smartphones and our home devices, and a need for speed and convenience, it’s no surprise that voice search is popular. Here are some actionable strategies to optimise content to rank better in voice search results.

Search behaviour has changed

Writing a search term into Google and speaking to Google Assistant involve two very different approaches. I remember in the earlier days of Google, when it wasn’t quite so powerful as it is now, how I had to use a very specific string of terms to find the results I needed. With voice search, it’s always a question or a short request and it’s conversational.

There is undeniably a shift towards more conversational language in search queries. Perhaps we saw it first with auto-suggestions when you type in an open question and the auto-suggestion results are ridiculous (see the hilarious Reddit thread if you’ve got time).

As a result there is a preference for longer, more natural-sounding phrases and questions, and get this, there is less focus on keywords – with only 1.71% of the exact keywords appear in the title tag of the results displayed through voice search. Google searches the entire page and plays back the most relevant section in the search.

1. Understand voice search terms

You have two choices with keyword terms, either you step into the highly competitive and expensive world of popular keywords or you explore long-tail keywords. What are long-tail keywords? A string of keywords that will help to attract a smaller amount of traffic but higher quality traffic that are more likely to engage and connect with your organisation.

Users are typically searching for queries which are:

• informational – ‘what is the capital city of Spain?’
• navigational – ‘where is the nearest petrol station to me?’
• transactional – ‘how do I pay my TV license?’

Takeaway action

It’s important to think about structuring some of your content with questions starting with: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.

You could also use tools like AnswerThePublic or Google’s People Also Ask to find common questions in your niche.

2. Create conversational content

There’s nothing more off-putting than overly formal and jargonated content that makes us have to search for the answer we’re looking for. Your writing style must adapt to natural, conversational tones in order to reach your audience.

Importance of addressing user needs with voice-search content

I often talk about user needs, with my background in government these two words are basically tattooed on both hands! However it’s so important to think about the user needs or intent when writing content, the age-old advice for content still stands here:

1. Write your user needs, “as a ballerina…I need to find a good ballet school near me so that I Can practice regularly”
2. Write your content plan, to continue the example, a list of ballet schools, academic standard, location by postcode and opening times, definition of good ballet schools in 2024
3. Write your first draft and then simplify the content either with a peer review or with use of ChatGPT.

Don’t have user needs? You may benefit from a content workshop to understand who your audience is and what their objectives are, and also the target content that they should be able to find to meet that need.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ) content to help voice search rankings

For YEARS, I would tell subject matter experts not to rely on FAQs because it eventually became a never-ending hole of doom of questions. In hindsight, it was more that we want to avoid big repositories of seemingly random and cluttered content topics. Now with voice-search, it’s important to think about FAQs in a more focussed and structured way.

Speak to your enquiries/customer service/support team to understand the most popular questions and write an article with the question in the title. At the very least, it’s something for your team to share with people to remove the pressure on repeating yourself

Optimising for featured snippets

Adapting your content for Google’s featured snippets is a great way to promote visibility, it’s not possible to make it happen by pressing a button but there are a few things you can do to improve being picked up by Google.

Takeaway action

How to optimise your content for featured snippets:

1. Structure your content to answer questions directly in the first 100-150 words
2. Use bullet points or numbered lists when you’ve got list items of more than three
3. Ensure the content appears on a page dedicated to the subject you’re talking about, the featured snippet example above is on a page dedicated to ‘How to wash a car’

In terms of your keyword strategy, use Google Search Console or tools like SEMRush to think research valuable keywords and then trial out 1-2 popular questions incorporating those keywords to shape out blog posts, landing page themes or sub-headings on a page.

Conclusion

As with many of the latest improvements and recommendations for Google search, it’s about creating concise and well-written content, avoiding overly formal and stuffy language that isolates your audience. We explore the variation in tone of voice and content guidelines in our content strategy projects.

Further reading

• Voice Search Optimisation: Best Practices for 2024 – further advice on optimising content with examples from Content Whale

• Mastering Voice Search SEO: Essential Strategies in 2024 – conversational keywords and optimising content for mobile devices from APNTech
• The Ultimate Guide to Voice Search Optimisation in 2024 – conversational language, optimising for featured snippets, and leveraging audio content like podcasts to improve voice search rankings from Propel Brand Story.

*Statistic from: https://www.demandsage.com/voice-search-statistics