If you want to level up your SEO strategy, you need to know about Voice Search Optimization. The newest phase of SEO strategy is here to stay, and today we’re going to cover exactly what you need to know in order to make Voice Search Optimization work for you.
Voice Search Optimization: The Fundamentals
To understand Voice Search Optimization (VSO), you need to be familiar with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is the practice of tailoring online content to show up at the top of search engine lists. You can do so by including keywords from your industry into the body, title, and headings of your content.
Voice Search Optimization is the step that comes after Search Engine Optimization. Where SEO is all about making your content rank at the top in response to a typed search query, VSO is about making your content rank at the top in response to a spoken search query. If you’ve ever asked Alexa how to remove a stain while your hands are wiping up a spill, or asked Google how to spell a word in the midst of a heated game of Scrabble, you’ve done a voice search.
Like SEO, VSO’s goal is to make your content appear at the top of the list when people ask questions containing keywords relevant to your content.
How Voice Search Optimization Works
Just like SEO, good VSO tailors your content to the most common search keywords that your potential audience members use in their searches. The difference between SEO and VSO is that those keywords usually look drastically different.
To see this difference, just consider the difference between how you type search queries and speak search queries. If you want to know what the tallest mountain in the world is, you’ll probably type “tallest mountain world.” Typing is always slower than speech or thought, and most people develop a search engine shorthand that includes only the necessary words to find the answer they need.
If you are searching for the answer verbally, however, it’s much easier to say “What’s the tallest mountain in the world.” Full questions are faster to ask because you don’t have to trim your question down into the critical elements to do the least amount of typing.
The keywords you need in order to rank in voice searches are going to be different from the keywords you need to rank for typed searches. Once you have the voice-specific keywords, VSO strategy is similar to SEO strategy. It’s all about including those keywords and their variations in your content and keeping the site accessible to search engines.
How to Make Voice Search Optimization Work For You
As voice search engines are only improving in their ability to correctly identify spoken words and requests, voice searches are going to increase. If your business wants to stay on top of the latest SEO strategies, you’ll want to make a point to optimize your content for voice searches as well as typed.
Find Your Keywords
For your voice SEO strategy to succeed, you need to find your keywords. There are two main types of keywords: simple keywords and long-tail keywords. Simple keywords are words that you usually find typed in search engine shorthand, like “gardening,” “technique,” and “flower care.” Long-tail keywords are found most frequently in verbal questions, but they can also show up in typed searches with less frequency. Long-tail keywords are strings of three or more words that are usually found together, like “Why are my roses dying?”
To find your long-tail keywords that appear in verbal searches, you can brainstorm all of the ways a client would ask a question your article can answer. Or, to save time, you can use a keyword research tool to find the most likely keywords.
Use Your Keywords and Conversational Language
Once you have your keywords, it’s time to build them into your content! Keywords that appear in titles and headers will rank higher than keywords that appear in the body text of your content, so it’s important to use headers and organizational features to amplify your content’s ranking.
Remember, verbal searches will most often be fully-formed conversational questions, so you’ll want to include conversational language and the use of question words and phrases like “how to” or “what to do when.”
Of course, nothing is more important than making sure that keywords feel natural. No one wants to read keyword soup, so you’ll want to find places to fit your keywords into your content naturally. A good writer will be able to fold keywords into content so seamlessly that you can’t tell which are which, because all of the words are critical.
Start Ranking with Voice Search Optimization
If you want to keep your content at the top of the rankings, you’ll want to take the next step in SEO strategy and start optimizing for voice searches.
Content Cucumber’s writers can provide you with a dedicated writer to get your VSO and SEO keywords naturally integrated into your content. Our customizable monthly services and add-ons let you request exactly what you need to get your business the visibility you want.
For more information on how Content Cucumber can take your marketing to the next level, check out our website!