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Over the past few years, voice search usage has easily become an instinct for millions of technology users across the world. At this point, the names Siri and Alexa almost feel like familiar friends. Voice search allows users to skip the typing and direct questions and commands to their devices out loud. A voice assistant will complete the task and relay the information back to them.
Voice Search Is Here To Stay in Both 2021 And Beyond
Whether you like it or not, there is no denying that voice search is here to stay for the long haul. This is because statistics are showing nothing but a rise in its reach and popularity. In fact, since its creation almost two decades ago, voice search has impacted consumer’s lives in more ways than one.
Here are some impressive stats that illustrate the sheer intensity of voice search’s influence:
- Over half of the adults aged 25-49 have been found to use their voice search features on a daily basis.
- Smart speaker sales have grown immensely over the years, and it has even been estimated that yearly sales will bring in a whopping 35.5 billion dollars in 2025.
- 1 in 5 searches in the Google app alone is completed with voice search.
Copywriting For Voice Search: An Overview
So… what does this growth mean for the future for marketers and copywriters?
With any popular technology advancements, there comes a time when businesses must shift the ways that they connect with their consumers. We all saw the changes that had to be made with the rise of the internet. As many businesses switched their traditional marketing tactics to digital. Voice search’s growth has forever altered both what consumers search for and how they conduct their searches. Its technology leaves marketers with a similar situation.
To make content that will reach consumers best via voice search, it is important to write in a way that appeals to the style and subject of queries that consumers are asking for. And since three-quarters of internet users don’t even make it past the first page of search results, optimizing for voice search is a shrewd way to gain new traffic, brand awareness, and inevitably new customers.
7 Tangible Tips For Improving Copy to Optimize for Voice Search
A few small adjustments to your content and website is all you need to see the ranks and engagement that you deserve. With years of experience in SEO writing, I’ve accumulated the best practices for voice search writing learned directly from experience.
Here are the top 7 tangible ways to improve copy and optimize for voice search today:
#1 Use Long-Tail Keywords Strategically
The strategic usage of keywords can work wonders for boosting your rankings and traffic. In general, researching the search terms that your target audience is most likely to use informs you on the phrases and words to place into your content’s titles, headings, and text bodies.
Keywords for voice search are most successful in the format of long-tail keywords, which is a phrase or query made up of a few words as opposed to one (ex. Italian restaurants in Houston). The success of long-tails is associated with the conversational style that voice search facilitates. When speaking aloud, you’re much more likely to articulate your inquiries in full, conversational sentences to search engines. As opposed to typing where 1-2 words are all the more common.
#2 Set Up Your Business’s Google Listing
Although e-commerce businesses are more popular than ever, the business’s that do best with voice search are the ones that have a physical location. This is because just about 1 in 5 of the voice searches conducted are seeking local-based content, giving brick and mortar stores all the more power to rank highly in results.
To take advantage of the local traffic and visibility that voice search could bring you, and set up your business’s Google listing to its fullest potential. Ensure that your location, hours of operation, address, and other location-based information is completely accurate and up-to-date.
#3 Optimize For Mobile
The beautiful thing about voice search is that it makes it incredibly simple to conduct searches on the go. Whether it’s while commuting to work, taking a walk, or driving, voice search is used on mobile devices 59% of the time. Optimizing your content for mobile is crucial for ensuring that your content is structured well for a smaller screen.
Simple techniques for more optimized mobile copy include:
- Adding bullet points, numbered lists, titles, headers, and short paragraphs to ensure a readable structure
- Keeping your paragraphs short, sweet, and to the point for a digestible read
- Making the most out of a compelling title (since there’s less text showcased on the mobile screen)
#4 Always Rely On A Conversational Tone
Although Siri, Alexa, and other voice assistants can sound robotic to some, around 41% of individuals with voice speakers feel like they’re talking to a person when they use them. This opens an opportunity to build stronger connections with consumers when your copy is read aloud. Writing in a conversational way helps your copy translate seamlessly into the audio format of voice assistants.
Easy ways to write in a natural manner include:
- Avoiding keyword stuffing, or putting too many keywords into your content with the hopes of ranking higher. (spoiler alert: it never helps, only hurts.)
- Removing unnecessary filler words or formal vocabulary
- Adding sprinkles of humor or informal language
#6 Snag The Coveted “#0 Spot”
Ranking in the top slot on search engines is an SEO copywriter’s dream. As mentioned earlier, consumers don’t take much time to venture past the first few results, so a top 0 slot is a goldmine for the most traffic possible. This top slot, otherwise known as a featured snippet, can be read by a voice assistant without clicking an article.
Increase your chances of gaining the spot of a featured snippet by conducting target audience research. This helps you better understand the most commonly searched questions, keywords, and queries that your consumer seeks out.
#7 Provide Answers To Consumer Inquiries
The setup of voice search makes it very accessible to ask full-fledged, grammatically sound questions to devices. Think about it: when you’re speaking to a device, saying the entirety of a sentence such as “Where can I get a blue jacket in Los Angeles?” rolls off the tongue more naturally to most than the disjointed words of “blue jacket LA near me.”
Since the majority of voice searches contain questions with the accompanying words of what, when, where, or how, FAQ pages perform particularly well. In general, frequently asked questions pages are a great website staple for getting to the bottom of your audience’s pain-points. They allow you to easily aggregate the most commonly sought out questions regarding your products, services, and business in one place.
Optimize for Voice Search: Worth the Effort
The stats show that voice search is here to stay. Is revamping your copy to be more search friendly worth the tedium? Absolutely, yes. The more strategic and well-written your content is, the greater your chances for making new sales and consumer relationships.
Do you have any tips to add on how to optimize for voice search? Let us all know in the comments section below.
